Hi Jackie, thank you! Well, first, I have six buds of BA inserted into Pink Clouds which are green and swelling after more than a month, so they should be safely able to be considered "takes". It will likely be spring before they produce enough growth to do anything with. I don't know if they will flower then or not as I don't know how mature they must be before flowering. My hope is to be able to generate more wood for propagation. Once there are blooms, you can be sure they will be posted to Help Me Find.

There really isn't any way to know for sure how they were confused or when. I guess, if you squint really hard and really want to believe, Spray Cecile Brunner might be able to be confused with the single, nearly century old photograph of Bloomfield Abundance. This one is particularly satisfying for me. I have maintained for more than thirty years that what has been sold as BA is definitely a mutation of Cecile Brunner. There is absolutely no way the stated parents for Bloomfield Abundance could result in a definite Tea-poly result. We've seen more than hundred years of Wichurana breeding and none of it has resembled anything approaching Cecile Brunner's foliage or wood.

This Bloomfield Abundance does resemble some of the results The Brownells obtained in their decades of work breeding "HT's" using Wichurana to create their "Sub Zero" roses. If you look at Flower Carpet and the Kordes results from their breeding with The Fairy, that should also give you an indication of what you should expect the results to look like.

The report that BA had been grown in the family for a generation could have easily come from someone giving them the plant and remembering its identity incorrectly, or someone being sent out to collect wood from it and selecting the wrong plant to cut from. The former is common in commerce as well as in "pass along" situations. The latter is also common. Probably the most famous example was when Huey was mistakenly collected as Ragged Robin, resulting in Huey becoming the standard stock in US commercial production. Or, it could simply be the situation of, "Gee, that looks like Bloomfield Abundance", so it became BA. However it occurred, I agree with you that it is exciting to finally have a potential candidate for being the REAL one! I'll keep you posted how these develop. Happy Thanksgiving! Kim

Jackie -- Roses went back and forth "across the pond" in greater numbers than you might think. The business that became ROY&T sent many roses there, in the 1950's, and they probably went even earlier.

That's why there is Rose Mosaic Virus in England. And I know of at least one case in which a plant brought FROM AUSTIN to be used as a mother plant in the U.S. arrived with a whacking case of RMV. That company tested their mother plant, after I reported the problem to them, and they acknowledged to me, privately, that yes, their mother plant was virused.

So -- mis-named roses must just as easily have been exchanged. Doesn't surprise me in the least.

And, FWIW, there is a possibility that the re-discovered 'Bloomfield Abundance' may be available at the Cemetery's April 18 sale -- though it is too early to be certain of that.

Jeri

Thank you both. I hope the real BA is offered for sale at the Cemetery - that would be wonderful!

Jackie

We have several plants of the tentative true BA in FSC's new garden, and we've propagated a number of them. Rose Petals Nursery is also growing it. It's a nice rose.
Malcolm

That would make another really interesting DNA project, Malcolm. See if it is possible to determine the level of Wichurana involvement and if it seems to have occurred when and where the stated BA parentage indicates. Kim

It surely is a beautiful thing. And I was interested to see how the habit of the young plant in the Cemetery echoed the rather young plant in the historic photos.

And the BLOOM is delicious.